The invention relates to a chest-mounted breathing gas terminal block assembly which is mounted on the personal flight equipment of a pilot.
Chest-mounted breathing gas terminal blocks are well known in the art. Such terminal blocks attach to a pilot's personal flight equipment and include an inlet for receiving breathing gas from an aircraft-mounted regulator and an outlet which couples to the breathing mask. A second outlet may be provided which couples to a chest counter-pressure vest which inflates during high G maneuvers to prevent pilot blackout. In certain situations, it may be necessary for the pilot to eject from the aircraft while in flight, and the pilot's seat is provided with a release and ejection mechanism for this purpose. During ejection, a connection between the aircraft-mounted regulator and the breathing gas inlet on the coupler block is broken to allow the pilot to separate from the aircraft. An emergency breathing gas supply is contained in a bottle located in the seat and stays with the pilot during ejection. The emergency breathing gas supply is provided to the terminal block through a fixed orifice and a small diameter high pressure hose. This provides a continuous flow rate but not pressure regulation. In alternate configurations, an emergency breathing regulator can be mounted on or adjacent the bottle to meter the flow and pressure of oxygen to the pilot in accordance with the pilot's breathing requirements. However, in order to provide an adequate supply of regulated breathing gas for the pilot, a large diameter low pressure hose between the emergency regulator and the terminal block is required. The low pressure hose is bulky and soft and susceptible to being crushed or torn by the blast of air encountered during ejection thus jeopardizing the pilot's breathing supply from the emergency regulator. It would be desirable to provide a conduit for supplying the pilot with emergency breathing gas supply which is not susceptible to damage during the ejection process.